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The Abbey of St. Albans
The Abbey of St. Albans
from 1300 to the Dissolution
of the Monasteries
THE STANHOPE ESSAY
1911
VIVIAN H. GALBRAITH
MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY
SCHOLAR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE
B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET
Xondon
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., LIMITED
O-* f\
il6 *? (o
CONTENTS.
PAGB
Introductory . . . . 3
I. The Revival within the Abbey during the 14TH
Century . . 11
II. The Necessity for Dissolution .. 35
(A) Sketch of the Economic History, 1300-1539 36
(B) Decay of the Monastic Spirit in the 15TH
Century . . . . 47
Appendix. The Account of William Wallingford
IN the • Lives and Benefactions of the
Later Abbots ' . . 73
List of the Abbots of St. Albans from 1300 to 1539 75
A List of the Chief Authorities . . 76
2288il
Introductory
Introductory.
In the later Middle Ages the Abbey of St. Albans
was the most brilliant, though by no means the
wealthiest,* of the English monasteries. There was
ample reason for this pre-eminence. Proximity to
London kept its members abreast of the times and
freed them from the stain of provincialism, and its
position on the Great North Road ensured as its
frequent guests the greatest men in the kingdom.
Its hospitality became proverbial, and Matthew Paris
records that there was room in the monastic stables
for three hundred horses at one time. Always, too,
there was the glamour of literary greatness as well
as its association with St. Alban,* England's proto-
martyr, whose genuine relics by universal consent
it was admitted to possess. Besides these special
traits the Abbey bore the usual insignia of exempt
houses — royal foundation, a wide franchise with
episcopal jurisdiction, and a place for its abbot
among the Lords in Parliament. The homage of
some twelve daughter houses or cells, while not
increasing its material prosperity, added considerably
to its dignity.
* In view of the fact that the Abbey contained sixty monks,
St. Albans was relatively slenderly endowed. C/. below, p. 23.
' The shrines of St. Osyth and St. Amphibalus, also at St.
Albans, were scarcely less famous.
.4.'...,.... THE APBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
The growth of the St. Albans legend is proof
that it was no unconscious greatness the members
Growth of ^^joy^^- I^ the eleventh century, when
St. Albans the monastery had become ' the school
^^^" ' of religious observance for all England '
arose the idea of a miraculous origin; it received
final consecration in the narrative of Matthew Paris.
Henceforth, it was sober history that King Offa
founded the Abbey on August ist, 793, when the
ground opened miraculously, revealing the body of
the martyr himself with a golden band around his
forehead inscribed with his name. From this point
its history was made to run on without a break; the
names of successive abbots were given with the dates
of their reigns, and the acquisition of existing pos-
sessions attributed to various of them by a method
hidden from us. From a great deal of tradition
little more can be deduced than that the Abbey was
of royal foundation and exempt from episcopal juris-
diction, that it was early endowed with a wide
franchise, and, by analogy, that morals and discipline
would be by no means strict in Anglo-Saxon times.
With the advent of the Norman Conquest we are
on surer ground. Under Abbot Paul (1077 — 1097)
the Abbey was purged of the abuses of the Anglo-
g^ Saxon period and a stricter discipline en-
of the forced, although only by the loss of
onquest. ^^q^^^^q^ from episcopal control. The
monastery was now rebuilt on a more magnificent
scale, and for nearly two centuries St. Albans was
a model house. Under the saintly John de Cella
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 5
(1195 — 1214), a Stern ascetic, the House perhaps
reached its zenith. At no other time were feasts and
vigils so strictly observed by the monks, who for
fifteen years gave up drinking wine in order that the
refectory and dormitory, then ruinous, might be
rebuilt. During the Norman period St. Albans had
been endowed by many gifts of manors. On some
of these cells were founded,* but most of them were
simply absorbed into the monastic estates, and of
course brought within the Abbot's jurisdiction. The
efifect of this territorial enrichment of the monas-
tery was twofold. First, it tended to subordinate
religious to secular functions : the Abbot became
primarily a man of business absorbed in the adminis-
tration of the estates. Secondly, it attracted the
covetous glances of needy kings and popes. At the
very commencement of the thirteenth century the
Abbot had to face a reorganised Papacy intent upon
obtaining funds for the realisation of its strong
political ambitions. The Abbey had scarcely escaped
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincoln^ (1163) when
it fell under stricter subjection to Pope Innocent III.
For the future each abbot was to go in person to
Rome to secure confirmation of his election, that is
to say to be mulcted in a vast sum of money.* In
* About twelve cells were founded ; the most important being
Tynemouth and Wymondham, in Northumberland and Norfolk
respectively.
' Gesta Ahhatum I, p. 489.
' Gesta Ahhatum I. p. 307 ; //, p. 3. Still more oppressive was
the enactment of a General Lateran Council under Innocent IV,
by which the Abbot had to visit Rome, either in person or by
proxy, once every three years. The cost of such journeys and
the extortion of the Holy See were regarded as a heavy grievance.
6 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
a lesser degree the monastery was menaced by the
Crown. Every vacancy put the convent at the mercy
of the King's escheator, who in practice could, and
often did, exact far more than the sums to which he
was entitled. Indeed, both kings and popes were
coming to regard the Abbey as a sure source of
wealth in any emergency, and they did not scruple
to multiply excuses for continual exactions.^ These
dangers of papal and kingly oppression were self-
evident, but in the gradual disintegration of feudal
society lay a more subtle peril. The monastery's
failure to adapt itself to the new system of relation-
ships which were springing up on lay estates brought
upon it the further misfortune of unpopularity.
The disfavour incurred by the attempt to retain the
manorial system was increased when the organisation
itself began to show signs of decay. The decline
^ of religious fervour was followed by a
of the gradual relaxation of monastic discipline,
onas ery. ^^^ comparative luxury invaded the
cloister. After the death of John of Berkhamstead
in 1301 the extent of the falling off began to be
apparent. For the next generation the convent was
in an unhealthy condition. But though weakened,
the organisation was far from being destroyed. At
times like this the traditional routine was invaluable.
The writing of history, for instance, was continued,
' Istequoque Abbas,' says the chronicler (Gesta Abbatum I, p. 312),
referring to Abbot John of Hertford (elected 1235), ' in novitate sua
multis exactionibus fatigabatur et expensis, sed prae omnibus
Romanorum oppressionibus novis et inauditis coepit molestari.'
^ See for example, Gesta Abbatum I, p. 397.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 7
and the period is still known to us by the works
of John do Trokelowe and Henry de Blaneford,
contemporary chroniclers.
At this point our subject begins. The period may
be broken up into two parts, and a line of division
is supplied by the year 1396, in which Abbot Thomas
de la Mare died. Taking our stand, first at 1396,
and then at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, we
shall look back over the two periods under review
and summarize the chief tendencies by which they
are marked.*
* The economic history of the Abbey cannot fairly be so
divided, and will therefore be treated in Section II from 1300 —
»539-
I
The Revival w^ithin the Abbey during
the 14th Century
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
I.
The Revival within the Abbey during
the 14th Century.
The ' fourteenth century revival ' is perhaps too
dignified a name for the feeble efforts at reformation
in the majority of English monasteries. Most
houses failed utterly to arrest the decay that had set
in during the thirteenth century, and for the rest of
their existence underwent a slow internal dissolution
which was merely consummated by the measures of
Henry VIII. To this rule there were exceptions.
At Bury St. Edmunds/ for instance, while John
Tymworth was abbot (1379 — 1390), there was a
marked revival accompanied by a little outburst of
chronicle writing. More important was the recovery
of St. Albans, where a conscious effort towards
reform is the main thread of its history. The reigns
of four abbots which cover the first half of the
century witnessed the restoration of discipline : the
long abbacy of Thomas de la Mare (1349 — 1396) was
devoted to the repair of the Abbey finances, which
had been depleted by the frequent vacancies. The
steps by which first the rule, and then the finances,
* Mems. of St. Edmundsbury. Arnold. Vol. in, passim.
12 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
were strengthened indicate considerable continuity of
reforming purpose in successive abbots.
The regulations issued by John de Maryns^ (1302 —
1308) for the reform of the convent and cells reveal
the extent of the decay. The rule of silence, it
appears, had been all but forgotten;
of the swearing had grown common, and
iscip ine. j^Qj^j^g^ forgetful of their vow of poverty,
were found to possess private property. In the cells
the state of affairs was even more deplorable.
Brethren were known to insult tlie priors, whose
authority had grown too weak to ensure adequate
punishment of offenders. Reference is made to the
existence of immorality in the convent. It was
necessary to prohibit brethren from intercourse with
women, from wandering about singly, and from
drinking in the town. The possession of greyhounds
for hunting was also forbidden.
Such was the condition of the convent and cells
in the first years of the century. Abbot Maryns,
though willing and anxious to carry out the neces-
sary reformation, was not strong enough to enforce
his will upon the monks. Moreover, the penalties
prescribed for offences in his regulations were wholly
inadequate, and to this must be attributed the persis-
tence of the evils which they were intended to cure.
The decline of discipline during the last years of
the thirteenth century had been accompanied by a
loosening of the authority of the mother abbey over
its cells. It appears that some of them were not
^ Gesta Abbatum 11^ p. 95.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 13
prepared to admit even a nominal dependence on the
abbot. Making as its pretext the huge exactions of
Hugh of Eversdon (Maryns' successor), the cell of
Binham/ led by its Prior, William Somerton, and
supported by the local gentry, broke into open revolt.
A long contest followed, with appeals to both King
and Pope, but in the end the abbot was successful.
The rebellious priory was brought back to its alle-
giance, and Hugh of Eversdon proceeded systemati-
cally to extract formal submissions from the several
cells. A grave feature of the quarrel with Binham
was the influence exerted by Thomas of Lancaster,
Sir Hugh Despenser, and various notables who con-
trived more than once to force the hand of the abbot.
The interference of laymen in the affairs of the
monastery is a sure sign of its weakness.
Abbot Hugh was a poor creature to govern so
great a House. Avaricious, vain, extortionate, a
pampered favourite of Edward H, he oppressed the
cells and exasperated the townsmen. On his death
in 1327 the latter broke into revolt. The whole of
England was at this time in a state of anarchy and
wretchedness only too clearly reflected in the con-
dition of St. Albans. The House was desperately
poor and burdened with debt, and the moral condi-
tion of the monks is admitted by the chronicler to
have been very low. Degeneracy, in fact, had gone
to greater lengths than at the beginning of the cen-
tury. The Constitutions of Abbot Wallingford* deal
' Gesta Abbatum II, appendix, p. 469.
* Gesta Abbatum II, p. 130.
14 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
with the most elementary rules of conduct and
morality, the frequent breach of which could be the
only reason for their publication. The Abbot, how-
ever, was a saintly man, and made persistent efforts
to correct abuses. In a formal visitation of the cells
he punished severely all cases of incontinence, and
having compiled two books of statutes, did his best
to enforce them. The monks, unused to so strict
a master, grumbled at Wallingford's severity, but
before his death matters had begun definitely to
mend. In his later years he even had leisure to turn
his attention to the cells. The Priory of Redburn
was completely re-organised, and the government of
the dependent house of St. Mary de Prez systematised
for the first time.
Michael de Mentmore (1335 — 1349), who succeeded
Richard Wallingford as abbot, continued the work
of reform on the lines laid down by his predecessor,
devoting much attention to the cells. He did what
he could to make the life of the leper brethren of
St. Julian more tolerable, and drew up a new rule
for the nuns of Sopwell. A peculiar interest attaches
to the rule of this Michael Mentmore. His local
effort towards reform came into contact with the
wider attempt of Pope Benedict XII to improve the
Benedictine Order. With the increasing lethargy of
the Black Monks, the intervals between General
Chapters had grovv^n greater and greater. Bene-
dict XII abolished the two provinces into which
hitherto the English Benedictines had been divided
and revived triennial General Chapters meeting at
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 15
Northampton. To Abbot Michael, significantly
enough, the Pope entrusted the execution of these
measures. The abbot entered heartily into the work,
exhorting and encouraging individuals and actively
helping in the restoration of religion in places where
it had altogether decayed.
Thus when Abbot Michael, having been struck
down by the Black Death, was succeeded by Thomas
^^ ... de la Mare, the foundations of reform
The Abbacy '
of Thomas had been laid. It fell to the lot of the
new abbot to complete and adorn the
work begun by his predecessors.
Thomas de la Mare, who ruled the Abbey for
almost fifty years, has perhaps left a deeper mark
on the history of St. Albans than any other abbot.
He was no mere political prelate. For his age he
was what would be called a good man; but before
all things he was an able administrator and a stem
though just ruler. Indefatigable in upholding the
convent's rights against every outside power, he
knew no compromise in his exaction of full obedience
from all within the House. To his biographer,
credulity, the employment of unworthy officers and
his lavish outlay as President of General Chapters
were the only flaws in an otherwise perfect character.
No censure is passed upon his craftiness in evading
the Statute of Mortmain, nor are certain acts of
crude revenge adversely commented upon. Besides
supreme ability, he certainly possessed an exceptional
personality, and towards the close of his life was
i6 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
regarded almost as a saint by the brethren.^ The
greatest of the later abbots, he has perhaps suffered
unduly at the hands of his editor, who conceived of
him only ' as that most litigious of abbots . . .
Thomas de la Mare/^ His tenants do not appear to
have looked upon him as a tyrant. The orderly
character of the revolt of 1381 at St. Albans was in
marked contrast with the scenes of pillage and
murder at Bury St. Edmunds. The St. Albans
tenants rose to assert their rights — the men of Bury
to avenge their wrongs.
Abbot Thomas displayed an astonishing activity
in every department of monastic life. The church
services were entirely revised, and particular care was
bestowed upon the singing, for the regulation of
which the Abbot drew up a new ordinal. A series
of practical reforms followed; in monastery and
cells the discipline was more strictly enforced. The
general raising of the monastic standard was exem-
plified by his refusal to admit illiterate nuns into the
house of St. Mary de Prez, and by his careful
provisions regulating the duties of the Benedictine
students at Oxford. At first, indeed, the rigidness
of his discipline caused many of the monks to
grumble, and some even to secede. But his method
was effective. Before long the Abbey grew famous,
not only in England, but on the Continent, and
monks were often sent to St. Albans to be trained in
monastic discipline for the benefit of their own
houses.
^ Gesta Ahbatum III, pp. 396-423. ^ Gesta Abbatum III, p. x.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. . 17
The position of St. Albans as the premier Bene-
dictine house was recognised by the election of the
Abbot as president of the successive General
Chapters at Northampton. In these assemblies De la
Mare issued a comprehensive series of constitutions
on the discipline of the Order. Looking to the
future of learning, he directed every abbot and
prior to maintain at Gloucester Hall* (Oxford) a
number of students proportionate to the size of his
house. He himself supported many more students
than the number of his monks required. Edward
HTs commission to the Abbot to visit all the monas-
teries in the King's presentation is a striking tribute
to his thoroughness. A visitation of Abbot Thomas
was far from being a mere formality, and shed a
valuable sidelight on the condition of many a great
abbey. ^ * In them,' says the chronicler, * religion
had well-nigh disappeared.' The proper conduct of
the monastic rule had been forgotten, and serious
abuses were rife. At the Abbeys of Eynsham,
Abingdon and Battle, De la Mare worked wonders of
reform ; at Reading he composed differences between
the Abbot and the monks who had practically risen
in rebellion; at Chester he took the extreme step of
deposing the Abbot. For these services he was
* St. Albans probably kept a ' studium * at Gloucester Hall
from 1337. De ia Mare, John Moote, Hethworth and Whetham-
stede were all considerable benefactors of the College, among their
gifts being a chapel, library, and the rebuilding of the old wooden
house in stone. For the relations of the Abbey and Gloucester
Hall, see Daniel and Barker's History of Worcester College,
chapter iii.
* Gesta Abbatum U, 406.
i8 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
made a Privy Councillor, and henceforth stood in
high favour with Edward III. St. Albans, in fact,
was at the height of its reputation. The story
seriously told in the chronicle of De la Mare, in a
moment of despondency, only being dissuaded from
resigning his abbacy by the repeated supplications
of King John of France^ and the Black Prince suffi-
ciently illustrates his social eminence. As for the
Abbey, it even eclipsed its old rival, the Abbey of
Westminster. It was in vain the Abbot of West-
minster claimed the first seat among the abbots in
Parliament. So long as de la Mare lived, that seat
was occupied by the more important, more brilliant
figure of the Abbot of St. Albans.
Its inability to resist kingly and papal extortion
during the thirteenth century left the Abbey in a
state of miserable poverty. Financial comfort could
„ , be restored only by regulating these exac-
of the tions. This the abbots appear to have
realised, and John of Berkhampstead's
(1290 — 1 301) new arrangement^ with the King is the
first step towards a remedy of the evil. The existing
debt was cancelled, and the Abbey secured possession
of the revenues during a vacancy in return for a pay-
ment of 1,000 marks. Any advantage which this
exclusion of the King's escheator might have con-
^ Living in England in captivity. He was a close friend of
the Abbot, and spent much of his time at St. Albans.
^ The need of it had long been felt : the privilege had, in fact,
been bought in two particular cases, viz., in 1235 for 300 marks,
and in 1260 for 600 marks. The figures (as well as the new ar-
rangement to pay 1000 marks in the future) indicate the growth
of governmental extortion.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 19
ferred upon the Abbey was nullified by the unhappy
occurrence of no less than five vacancies between
1290 and 1349. Each of these involved not only the
payment of 1000 marks to the King", but a far more
serious expenditure to secure papal confirmation.
The financial embarrassment of the House surely
increased.^ As a result of a special appeal to the
Pope, Abbot Hugh secured a licence to receive
special subsidies from the cells in order to lighten
the debt.^ But from papal exactions there was no
escape. In vain the Abbot begged to be excused
from personal attendance at the Curia. His presence
was insisted on; the usual enormous fees were
exacted, and a licence to contract a loan to meet the
expense thus incurred was the only relief afforded
him.' Abbot Hugh early became a favourite of
Edward H, and the King's lavish endowments might
well have served to repair the Abbey's fortunes but
for the extensive building operations which were
necessary. The church fabric was in a ruinous con-
dition; walls were falling and roofs tumbling in, and
Abbot Hugh had little choice but to restore the south
side of the church. Small wonder that the debt
which was 2,300 marks in 1308 was more than
double that sum twenty years later.
At the accession of Richard Wallingford the
* The almost chronic dearth at St. Albans in the early fourteenth
century was a further misfortune. In 13 14 the price of provisions
in the town was excessive, and Edward endeavoured to fix it by
Ordinance {Trokelowe, p. 89).
' Cal. Papal Registers : Papal Letters 11, 1305-1342, p. 75.
' Cal. Papal Registers : Papal Letters II, 1305-1342, p. 75.
20 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
Abbey's condition attracted the notice of the Crown,
and a commission was appointed^ in 1327 to ' inquire
by whose negligence the existing defects and dissi-
pation of the Abbey's revenues had been brought
about/ Two years later (perhaps as a result of the
commission) Abbot Richard received permission to
live abroad for three years ' to avoid the burden of
too great expense.'^ In this unsatisfactory condition
the Abbey finances remained till 1349, when the
Black Death visited St. Albans with unusual severity.
Abbot Michael and three-fourths of the convent
perished, and there is little doubt that the mortality
among the Abbey's tenants was high.^ This catas-
trophe must have further impoverished the Abbey,
and the 1000 marks due to the King on de la Mare's
accession could only be paid by instalments.*
De la Mare realised that the payment to King and
Pope of large sums at irregular intervals was fatal
to any organisation of the Abbey's finances, and to
^. ^. . , him is due the credit of having con-
The Financial ^ °
Measures of ceived the more workable system of
annual contributions. Soon after the
outbreak of the Great Schism, a petition was ad-
dressed to the Pope, supported by commendatory
^ Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1327-1^30, p. 84.
^ Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1327-1330, p. 362.
^ Gesta Abbatum III, p. 147, ' per epidemias hominum et
mortalitatem bestiarum facultates monasterii redditae sunt exiles.'
Also Walsingham, Hist. Ang. I, 273. ' At that time,' says Wal-
singham, ' villages formerly very populous were bereft of inhabi-
tants, and so thickly did the plague lay them low that there
scarcely survived enough to bury the dead . . . Many were of
opinion that scarce a tenth of the population survived.'
* Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1348-1350, p. 476.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. ai
letters from the King, John of Gaunt, Princess
Joanna, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The
Abbot prayed that in return for an annual payment
of twenty marks the election of succeeding abbots
should receive confirmation without their personal
attendance at Rome.*
The arguments which the envoys to Rome were to
employ in the hope of winning the Pope's consent
to the proposed measure show clearly the difficulties
of the Abbey at this time. The whole annual revenue
had fallen to £1,053.^ Of this, £465 was assigned to
the Abbot — * and to the said Abbot pertains the
entertainment of noble guests and of all laymen, and
the prosecution of pleas in the various royal courts;
which, inasmuch as laymen are more hostile to monks
than they were wont, are more expensive than
formerly, and also occur more frequently.' The
remaining £600 was considered inadequate for the
maintenance of the convent.
An objection to this plea of poverty, vis., that the
Abbey was really much richer than it represented,
owing to the existence of its numerous cells, was
anticipated. The cells were said to be a charge on
the mother house, which at its own expense was
continually involved in litigation on their behalf.
Hospitality, it appeared, was the greatest burden
the Monastery had to bear. ' Also the Lord Pope
is to be informed that the Monastery of St. Albans
' Gesta Abbatum III. p. 146. A minor demand was liberty for
the abbot-elect to receive benediction at the hand of whatever
bishop he chose.
' Gesta Abbatum III, p. 148. Summa taxae omnium bonorum.
22 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
is near London, where the King's Parliaments, Con-
vocation, and other assemblies of nobles and clergy
are held. And the nobles and magnates of the
realm, both on their journey there and on their
return, are entertained at the Abbey, to its great
expense and loss.' The deamess of provisions,
owing to the proximity of rich neighbours, had also
helped to impoverish the Abbey, and finally, the
partial felling of its woods to pay its debts to the
King and Roman Court had diminished a former
source of income.
At this time the Pope stood in great need of Eng-
lish support, and might therefore have been expected
readily to grant Abbot Thomas's requests. Yet the
desired privileges were secured only by lavish bribery
among court officials. William le Strete, one of the
Abbey's proctors at Rome, writes to the Abbot^ :
' And I hope that the business will come to a good
end; but I do not know it at all for certain, seeing
that the Pope is very capricious.' He goes on to say
that the Pope has not yet read a single letter from
the Abbot, ' and be pleased to know that your busi-
ness cannot be carried out here through letters from
anyone, but only through money.' Negotiations
were continued until 1396. In that year Richard II
addressed a further appeal to Boniface IX : * Whereas
. . . the Monastery of St. Albans^,' he wrote, * . . .
has its means grievously diminished by the heavy
expenses of the visits of the abbots-elect to tne
^ Gesta Abbatum III, p. 171.
* Cal. Papal Letters IV. p. 293. Sep., 1396.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 23
Apostolic See to obtain confirmation and benedic-
tion .... It is situate in the uttermost parts of
the earth, and is in comparison with other monas-
teries of the realm over slenderly endowed, and that
too in a barren place; whereas therein beyond the
other monasteries of the realm the highest devotion,
regular discipline and daily hospitality flourishes;
whereas if each abbot-elect were bound to make such
visit the number of monks would be minished, their
devotion chilled, and hospitality be not observed . . .'
This letter had the desired effect, and the Abbot's
petition was granted forthwith.^
The weakness of the central power during Richard
II's minority had offered a favourable opportunity
for making a similar arrangement with the Crown.
In lieu of a payment of i,0G0 marks in each vacancy,
Abbot Thomas had induced the Government to accept
an annual tribute of fifty marks. ^
Half a century earlier such measures might have
completely restored the Abbey's finances, and even
during the fifteenth century they sensibly lessened
its embarrassment. More they could not do, for the
decay of the economic system was to make prosperity
impossible.
' The grant of the same privilege to the Abbey of Evesham in
1363 was used as a strong argument by de la Mare during nego-
tiations.
' Gesta Abbatum III, p. 143. In 1396, Bury St. Edmunds
made a similar arrangement, the annual payment being fixed at
jC-^o (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1396-99, p. 21). About a year later, follow-
ing the example of St. Albans, Abbot Cratfield, of Bury St. Ed-
munds, made an agreement with Boniface IX identical with that
of de la Mare (Cal. Pat. RolU, 1396-99, p. 406).
24 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
Although the Abbot was a lay magnate as well
as a spiritual peer, it is remarkable how seldom the
Monastery was involved in political and party strife.
The current of life in the cloister
Political Attitude , , • i , . i i
of Abbot and but rarely mmgled with the stream
fXcentu/^^ of national life. Occasionally a
great noble, like Henry Beaufort,
Bishop of Lincoln, might be the Abbot's enemy, and
try to do him hurt; more often the Abbey enjoyed
the favour of nobles of all parties, of Yorkist as of
Lancastrian kings, and in return offered indis-
criminate hospitality. Such an attitude tended to
deprive the Abbey of all political or party value. A
natural bias, it should perhaps be added, was dis-
played in favour of the King, upon whose goodwill
the prosperity of the House in large measure
depended. Abbot Hugh of Eversdon, for instance,
was one of Edward IPs 'court party,' and was
richly endowed by that King. Again, Abbot Thomas
was a close friend and supporter of Edward HI,
as also of the Black Prince. But this attitude was
after all little more than the loyalty which they owed
to the King. Their support did not extend to party
quarrels, to ' loving those whom he loved, and
shewing enmity towards such as were his enemies.'
This detached political attitude is one reason why
monastic chronicles are often so intolerably dull.
Yet politics were as keen and as absorbing in the
Middle Ages as they are now, and monks and Abbot
must have followed their course, and criticised the
actors, with as much freedom as the men of to-day,
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 25
In favour of St. Albans it must be said that, in com-
parison with other monasteries, its chronicles are
singularly living and human. In those written
during the revival of historical writing under the
guidance of Thomas Walsingham, the political sym-
pathies of the convent during the critical period of
Richard II's reign are fully revealed.
Towards Richard II their feelings were hostile, if
not contemptuous. Walsingham, in his history of
the reign, describes with unction the King's childish
behaviour during his fits of ungovernable anger,*
his violent words on more than one occasion to his
Parliaments, and his absurd extravagance in dress.
With righteous indignation he relates how Richard,
on his way to London, borrowed from the monas-
tery a palfrey, which he never returned. Another
chronicler tells with scorn of the King's visit to
the Abbey in 1394, when large concessions were
promised, but never fulfilled.^ De la Mare's
successor, John Moote, was apparently on equally
indifferent terms with the King. ' This Abbot,' says
the chronicler, * gave to King Richard for the pur-
pose of preserving his good will and avoiding his
malice, at different times, one hundred and twenty-six
pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence.'*
The attitude of the convent towards Richard II
* He tells, for instance, how in 1384, in the midst of an argu-
ment with the Duke of Lancaster, he threw his shoes and cap
through the window. In 1387 a judge made difficulties about
signing a document presented to him. His son said, according to
Walsingham, that his father was knocked down and kicked as
he lay.
' Trokelowe, p. 167. ' Gesta AhbtUum III, Ixxii.
26 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
seems reasonable enough. The King, although he
conferred more than one benefit upon St. Albans,
does not appear to have cherished any affection for
the Abbey. He was rather ' an especial favourer and
promoter of Westminster,* whose interests he con-
sistently supported in the disputes of the reign
between the two houses concerning Parliamentary
precedence. More difficult of explanation are the
feelings St. Albans entertained towards John of
Gaunt. A contemporary manuscript — called, on ac-
count of its bitterness, the ' Scandalous Chronicle '^ —
reveals the existence of strong hostility towards him,
and repeatedly speaks of him in most abusive terms.
In the early years of the fifteenth century, when the
' Scandalous Chronicle ' was utilised for a new edition
of the history of the time,^ the worst of the slighting
references to John of Gaunt were erased and the
remarks generally toned down, while in the margin
of the MSS. is inserted cave quia offendiculum.
Plainly it was unwise to have such remarks about
the father of the living King, and so the * Scandalous
Chronicle ' was suppressed at the place where it was
written.^ Many motives may be attributed to the
Abbey for its hostile attitude towards John of Gaunt.
It had private grievances; the Abbot, for instance,
had resented (though he feared to refuse) Lancaster's
^ The chronicle has survived in two forms, viz.. Cotton MSS.,
Otho Cii (British Museum), and Bodleian MSS. 316 ff, 150-1, plus
Harleian MSS. 6434. It has been printed in Chtonicon Angliae
(Rolls Series).
^ The Royal MSS. E. ix (B.M.)— the basis of Walsingham's His-
toria Anglicana.
^ See Maunde Thompson. Intro, to Chronicon Angliae (Rolls
Series).
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 37
demand for large supplies of timber for his castle
at Hertford.^ Another reason, doubtless, was the
Duke's patronage of the * Arch-heretic ' Wyclifife,
whom the Abbot and convent regarded with peculiar
loathing. But the main cause of their hostility
towards John of Gaunt sprang almost certainly from
his political action. From 1377 to 1386 Lancaster
was most unpopular with almost all classes.^ The
many misfortunes of these years — the French raids
on the south coast, the failure of the English arms
in France and Flanders, and even the unsuccessful
government at home — were laid to his charge.
From the Historia Anglicana it is evident that the
monks shared this common attitude towards John
of Gaunt. Again and again responsibility for failure
is attributed to him, and he is branded as an incom-
petent general and a disloyal, scheming and un-
successful politician. It is rather startling to find,
however, that outwardly the most friendly relations
were maintained between the Duke and the Abbey,
while simultaneously such abuse was heaped upon
him in its official chronicles. The Duke acted con-
tinuously as a patron of the Abbey, and conferred
a long list of benefits upon it.* Evidently he was
unaware of the secret sentiments of the House which
he patronised so liberally.*
* Historia Anglicana I, p. 339.
' The peasant armies in 1381 arc said to have taken as their
crv : 'We will have no King named John.'
* See Armitage Smith, John of Gaunt, pp. 169-171.
* This is sufficient proof — if proof were needed — of the * indepen-
dence * of English chroniclers, i.e., they did not merely write what
they were told.
28 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
A growing movement towards reform and revival
was thus the main trend of events at St. Albans
during the fourteenth century. The persistent
Revival during ^^^^^s of Maryns and the other
de la Mare's short-lived abbots removed abuses
^^^' and restored the discipline. The
long abbacy of Thomas de la Mare was marked
by able administration, and minute and unflagging
attention to the monastery's interests. The Abbot
shirked no contest to retain or regain lands, services
or jurisdiction upon which the Abbey had just
claims. His rule was necessarily marked by con-
stant litigation with high and low, from which, in a
great majority of cases, he emerged successful.
This great labour, the details of which fill the
chronicles of his abbacy, had the effect of restoring
in some measure the Abbey's material prosperity.
Finally, by his statesmanlike measures with regard
to future vacancies he had done all in his power
to ensure the permanence of his work of financial
restoration.
The effect of lessening the pressure of outside
circumstances and rendering more safe and easy the
existence of the Abbey was to promote a mild
revival which bore its best fruits in a
Wrfdng.^^ new outburst of historical writing. The
golden age of St. Albans' historical com-
position had been the early thirteenth century, and
was associated with the names of Roger Wendover
and Matthew Paris. Then it was that the St. Albans
School grew famous. Its MSS. were frequently lent
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 29
to Other houses for the writing up of their own
chronicles/ and when official information was re-
quired on a point of history it became usual to refer
to the St. Albans chronicles.^ With so long a
tradition of annalistic composition' the Abbey de-
veloped a variety of script unique in England, and
experts can identify with considerable certainty the
products of the St. Albans scriptorium. The com-
position of history never actually ceased after the
time of Matthew Paris. The tradition was main-
tained (though perhaps it languished somewhat) by
the writings of Rishanger, Trokelowe and Blane-
forde. At the close of the fourteenth century
occurred the valuable revival under the guidance of
Thomas of Walsingham. The years 1370 and 1420
mark roughly the limits within which it fell. The
amount of work produced was considerable, and in
quality was hardly inferior to that of the thirteenth
century. From an historical point of view it is
* Tout. Polit. Hist, of England, 1216-1377, p. 452 : * The monks
were jealously proud of their library to which almost every abbot
found it expedient to contribute largely.' In 1326 there was great
indignation when Abbot Richard gave or sold nearly forty volumes
to Richard de Bury, a famous lover of books, to promote the
interests of the abbot at Court. The incident was not forgotten,
and after de Bury's death the books were bought back by the
new abbot.
' E.g. Higden's Polychronicon, viii. 278.
* The Scriptorium had been founded by Abbot Paul, circa 1077.
Owing to the ignorance of his own monks he was compelled to
fill it with hired scribes. Towards the end of the twelfth century
a * historiographer ' was appointed, and from that time the
systematic compilation of annals may be taken to date. From
the peculiar character of the St. Albans script Sir T. DufiTus
Hardy concluded that Matthew Paris learnt the art of writing
from a foreign schoolmaster. See Catalogue : Materials for His-
tory of Great Britain and Ireland III. xxv, xxxiv, cxxiii.
30 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
probably more important, since by Walsingham's
time other sources of chronicle writings were be-
ginning to fail.^
In its revival under De la Mare, St. Albans was
almost unique among the English abbeys; in no
other case was there any movement comparable
with it. Yet there is a grave
MoSr/dsS"' danger of overrating the signifi-
cance of De la Mare's abbacy. The
monastic system cannot be said to have been re-
invigorated nor primitive fervour restored. The
revival was confined within narrow limits, and,
on the whole, its fruits were small. It was, how-
ever, sufficient to blunt the edge of much of the
contemporary criticism which in the fourteenth cen-
tury was being applied to the monastic system.
Chaucer, for example, in his Prologue, described
for all time the typical monk of his day —
A Monk ther was, a fair for the maistrye,
an out-rydere, that lovede venerye ;
A manly man, to been an abbot able.
Ful many a deyntee hors hadde he in stable :
and, when he rood, men mighte his brydel here
Ginglen in a whistling wynd as clere
And eek as loude as doth the Chapel-belle,
Ther as this lord was keper of the celle
The reule of Seint Maure or of Seint Beneit,
By-cause that it was old and somdel streit,
^ The same epoch left its impress upon the Abbey fabric. Much
of it was rebuilt by Abbot Thomas, though unfortunately lapse
of time and the restoration by Lord Grimthorpe's munificence
have left little except the great Abbey gateway. Some stained
glass, wall-paintings and a rood screen of this date still remain,
and in Abbot Whethamstede's chapel there is a beautiful brass
of De la Mare,
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 31
This ilke monk leet olde thinges pace
And held after the newe world the space.
. . . therfor he was a frlcasour aright
Grehoundcs he hadde, as swifte as fowel in flight.
Of pricking and of hunting for the hare
Was al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare
His head was balled, that shoon as any glas
And eek his face, as he hadde been anoint.
He was a lord ful fat and in good point
He was nat pale as a for-pyned goost
A fat swan loved he best of any roost. ^
But Chaucer's satire, once so true,^ was a spent
shot in De la Mare's time.
There was other contemporary criticism which
was perhaps harder to meet. Langland looked for-
ward with certainty to the time when the monastic
system should be destroyed — * shall have knock of
a king and incurable the wound.' The criticism of
WyclifiFe was more severe. His rejection of the
Pope, with whose interests fhose of the exempt
monasteries were bound up, his doctrine of evan-
gelical poverty, and the practical proposal that the
Government should disendow a delinquent church
undermined the very foundations of monasticism.
Wycliffe's position rested upon the double argument
of the decay of the monastic life and the superiority
of a life lived in the world. Of this contention
St. Albans could refute only the half. The vicious
handling which the reformer receives in its chronicles
* Chaucer : Prologue, &c. (Morris), lines 165-206.
* Cf. p. 12 ante.
32 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
almost suggests an anticipation of defeat, a tacit
recognition of the weakness of the writer's position.
Thomas Walsingham, in his Historia Anglicana,
dubs him ' Wyk-beUeve' and ' disciple of anti-Christ ' ;
speaks not of his opinions, but of his ravings
(deliramenta), and unhesitatingly attributes to his
inspiration such varied ills as the Peasants' Revolt
and the profanation of the Sacrament by a Wiltshire
knight. When he chronicles the death of ' that limb
of Satan, idol of heretics, mirror of hypocrites and
fabricator of lies — John Wycliffe,' it is only to repeat
cruel gossip about his last hours. The life of
Wycliffe, in fact, marks a fresh step in the growing
unpopularity of the monastic system, and with a
sure instinct St. Albans recognised the fact, and so
far as it was able, dealt with him accordingly.
II
The Necessity for Dissolution
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 35
II.
The Necessity for Dissolution.
It remains for us, taking our stand at the year in
which the Monastery was dissolved, to survey the
period that has elapsed since the death of Thomas
de la Mare. It was a time of stagnation, followed
by rapid decline. At the end of the fifteenth century
the Abbey was financially more embarrassed and
morally even more depraved than in the first years
of our period. Without attempting a defence either
of the motives of Henry VIII or the methods of
the Dissolution, no other conclusion is possible but
that the abolition of St. Albans was both just and
necessary. The Abbey had long since outlived its
useful functions.
The necessity for the dissolution rests on a two-
fold argument. There was first, the decay of reli-
gion, and even morality itself, within the cloister;
and secondly, there was the decay of the manorial
system, the economic basis of monasticism.
36 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
(A). Economic History of the Abbey, ISOO-^IBSO.
A great spirtual peer who as a mitred abbot took
his place in Parliament among the magnates, the
Abbot of St. Albans was a no less important per-
sonage in virtue of his huge landed
as Landlord, possessions. Indeed, it has never
been determined whether the right of
such abbots to sit in the Upper House rested upon
their spiritual dignity or their position as tenants-
in-chief and great landlords. The Abbot of St.
Albans exercised a wide seignorial jurisdiction over
the Hundred of Cashio from early times, and later,
over numerous manors in the eastern counties,^
monuments to the piety of wealthy donors through
the centuries. At the commencement of the four-
teenth century the relations existing between the
Abbey and its tenants were solely those of the
manorial system, now fast decaying on all but
monastic estates. The symmetry of this arrange-
ment had been broken at an early date by the
growth of the town at the very gates of the Abbey.
The townsmen were ruled with the same despotic
power as the country tenants, from whom they
differed only in being more concentrated. As in
the closely parallel case of Bury St. Edmunds, St.
Albans was governed by a bailiff chosen by the Abbot
^ Viz. Essex, Hertford, Bedford, Bucks, Cambridge, Kent,
Middlesex, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Northampton, Berks, Lincoln, and
in London.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 37
and holding office during his pleasure; the towns-
men were tried in the Abbot's court, and offenders
incarcerated in the monastic prison. The Abbot
secured the profits arising from his courtV4' the
court of St. Albans under the ash-tree every three
Abbe weeks ' — and from fairs, as also the heavy
and tolls imposed upon all merchandise passing
°^"* through the town. This antiquated tyranny
contrasted ill with the wide municipal independence
enjoyed by other towns.
There were thus substantial reasons why the
townsmen should free themselves at the first oppor-
tunity from the hated tutelage of the Abbey, though
it must be confessed that their civic disabilities
weighed less with them than the strict preservation
of the Lord Abbot's warrens and fish ponds, the
close fencing in of his estates, and a host of galling
and antiquated signs of subjection, the chief of
which was the obligation to full their cloth and
grind their com at the Abbot's mill.
/^It was typical of the monastery's conservatism
that each succeeding abbot refused all concession.
Discontent culminated in revolt. In 1274, taking
as their pretext the matter of the Abbot's mill, the
townsmen inaugurated a mild rebellion by setting
up hand-mills in their own houses. Abbot Roger
easily suppressed the rising, and an outbreak in
13 14, provoked by the tactless, overbearing Hugh
of Eversdon, collapsed even more ignominiously.
A more serious disturbance, which broke out in
1327, was not finally crushed for seven years.
38 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
Taking advantage of the death of Abbot Hugh,
and the temporary anarchy which followed the
death of Edward II, the townsmen rose again and
blockaded the Abbey. The affair was rendered the
more serious by the existence among the monks
of a party in league with the malcontents. The
internal danger was averted by sending away the
disaffected monks to distant cells, but Abbot William
was compelled to give verbal consent to the demands
of the townsmen for a charter embodying the right
of choosing their own members of Parliament,
liberty to use handmills, to fish in the Abbey waters,
and to hunt its preserves, the privilege of executing
writs without the interference of the bailiff of the
liberty, and finally, the title of free burgesses.* By
royal help the Abbot at length crushed the rising;
the old subjection was once more firmly rivetted
upon the townsmen, and the Abbey parlour was
paved with their handmills as a token of their defeat
and a warning for the future.^ It is significant of
the cruelty and selfishness of the Abbey that no
sort of concession was made to the defeated towns-
men. At this time, as subsequently, the Abbot
showed himself incapable of appreciating the real
trend of events. For a moment the Abbey had
triumphed and all was well. Under the firm rule
* Gesta Abbatufn II, pp. 157-8.
' Another small outbreak in 1356 has escaped the notice of
writers on St. Albans municipal history. See Cal. Pat. Rolls,
1354-1358, p. 493. It was perhaps as a consequence of this that
the Convent secured a licence (1357) to crenellate the dwelling-
place of the Abbey. CaL Pat. Rolls, 1354-1358, p. 574.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 39
of Thomas de la Mare there was no hope of success
for an isolated rising, but the outbreak of the
Peasants' Revolt in 1381 gave the tenants their
opportunity, and the Abbey reaped the fruit of its
foolish and short-sighted policy.
So much for the townsmen. The bulk of the
Abbot's subjects, however, were country tenants,
living on his various manors. Under the manorial
^^ system rural tenants lived in a state of
Country political and economic subjection to their
lord. Of such tenants a certain number
were free labourers, but the large majority were
boimd to the lord by varying degrees of servile
tenure. The serfs or villeins divided their time
between cultivating their own patches of land and
rendering labour services on that part of the manor
which was cultivated by the lord or his bailiff for
the supply of his own granaries. On many of the
St. Albans manors a small money rent was also
paid by the serf for his land.* By long tradition,
though scarcely by law, the villein could not be
evicted; on the other hand, he was bound to the
soil, owed many feudal dues to his lord, and so
many days' work per year on the lord's domain.
A series of regulations of the close of the thirteenth
century^ discloses the harsh policy of St. Albans
with regard to its villeins. Freemen were forbidden
to buy villein lands; villeins were forbidden to sell
* Whethamstede II, p. 324-5 ; for such services the villein com-
monly received besides his food a small wage.
■ Gesta Abbatum I, p. 453-455.
40 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
to anyone either lands or produce;* money payments
and labour services were rigorously exacted, and
the huge warrens in possession of the Abbey were
strictly preserved. The effect of these regulations
was to prevent the serf increasing his holding, and
to maintain the distinction between free and unfree
tenants. By this means alone could the Abbot com-
bat the general tendency towards fusion of the two
classes.^
While the Abbey was thus fighting to continue
the old tyranny manumissions were becoming fre-
quent on lay lands, and all over the country labour
services were being given up in favour of money
payments. Further, the practice of letting out
lands in farms to rent-paying tenants was growing
more general. By diminishing the population the
Black Death (1349) hastened this process,^ for land-
lords were compelled to offer high wages to secure
^ An unusually severe regulation.
^ It was highly desirable for the Abbot to maintain this dic-
tinction. In the King's courts the villein had no case against his
lord save for bodily injury. In practice it appears that the Abbot
of St. Albans could inflict even bodily injury with impunity. See,
for instance, the case of Nicholas Tybson, who, having been
stripped, thrashed and wounded by the Abbot's servants, brought
an action for redress. The case was at once dismissed as a false
appeal on the ground that Tybson was the born villein of the
Abbot (Gesta Ahbatum III, p. 39).
^ T. W. Page : * End of Villeinage in England ' passim. See,
too, Petit-Dutaillis' introduction to R6ville, where the views of
Stubbs and Thorold Rogers on this subject are exploded. The
period 1349-1381, it is proved, was not marked (as they believed)
by the reduction to serfdom of men emancipated before the Black
Death, or the re-assertion on the part of landlords of labour ser-
vices already commuted for money payments. On the contrary,
the process of commutation (which had not advanced nearly so
far by 1349 as Stubbs thought) proceeded at an increasing rate
after 1349.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 41
the cultivation of their demesnes, and they had per-
force to bring in rent-paying tenants to till the
lands of such of their villeins as had succumbed.
Nor was the break-up of the old system retarded
by the Statute of Labourers (1352). The Act,
which provided that food prices as well as wages
should remain fixed, was not so much a blow aimed
at the poorer clases as an attempt to restore the
state of affairs existing before 1349. The process
of manumission continued; the numbers of freemen
steadily increased, and, in spite of the Statute, wages
and prices rose higher than ever before. This in-
crease in the numbers of free labourers inspired
those who were still in villeinage with the ambition
to become themselves free and to cease rendering
labour services which, as the token of their servile
tenure, were regarded as degrading.
Such were the grievances of the peasants who in
1381 formed the backbone of the Revolt. The
unwillingness to allow manumission which has been
seen to exist towards the end of the thirteenth cen-
tury at St. Albans, and the harsh provisions made
to retain labour services, continued in full force.*
In the case of one manor,- it is true, the two systems
appear to have existed side by side about 1340, but
* No manumissions occur in the records until more than a
generation after the revolt : evidently the old system remained
unprospcrous but intact at St. Albans in 1381.
R^ville : Le Soul^ement des Travailleurs d'Angleterte en 1381,
p. XXV. See also Gesta Ahhatum II, p. 123 and ///, pp. 39-41,
Whethamstede II, pp. 324 and 333. At the cell of Tynemouth in
1378 there is no trace of commutation in the manor rolls; the
old system still exists in its entirety ; see Gibson : History of Tyne-
mouth, Vol. II, Appendix, p. cxxi.
42 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
the rest of the evidence points to the retention in
full of the old system both on the St. Albans estates
and on the estates of its cells. Thus in 1381 the
rural tenants of St. Albans were ready to join in
the general revolt. Simultaneously the townsmen
made a final attempt to win from the Abbot privi-
leges identical with those demanded in 1327.
There is little reason to linger over the details of
the Revolt. The townsmen rose in a body and set
themselves to destroy all visible tokens of their
subjection. The fences of the Abbot's
o?i38r°^^ woods were pulled down, his game was
killed freely, and a show was made of
dividing his domain into small individual holdings.
Many houses were burnt, and the Abbey itself was
mildly raided; but from first to last there was no
wish to take life. The leader of the insurgents was
William Grindcob, who appears to have been some-
thing of an enthusiast, and the most disinterested
of all the leaders in this revolt. In compliance with
his demands the Abbot was compelled to deliver
up all the Abbey charters, and then to draw up a
new charter granting to the townsmen (i) rights of
pasturage on his common, (2) permission to use
private handmills, (3) entire freedom to hunt and
fish over the monastic estates, and (4) self-govern-
ment by freely-elected officials. These were a
repetition of the demands of 1327, except that in
the interval the notion of self-government had
become more clearly defined.
In spite of the townsmen's boast that they were
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 43
in alliance with the country tenants, the two bodies
seem to have acted independently. Each had its
own grievances to redress. Indeed, the country
tenants were still further divided, but the Abbey was
powerless to resist even such small bodies as the
villeins of individual manors. The villeins on most
of the Hertford manors — Tittenhanger, Northaw,
Watford, Berkhamstead — marched to the Abbey
and in a curiously restrained spirit secured charters
satisfying their various local grievances. The
tenants of the manor of Redburn, for example,
extracted charters containing the abolition of serf-
dom, of villein services (in favour of money rents),
and also, in common with the townsmen, the rights
of the chase and of fishing. Those of Rickmans-
worth obtained all these privileges and the right
besides of disposing freely of lands and movables;
and so it was done by most other manors in the
county.
But the privileges were secured only to be lost
almost immediately. The King's officers arrived at
St. Albans, no attempt at resistance was made, and
the trouble subsided as quickly as it had arisen.
The fifteen executions that followed (Grindcob being
the most notable victim and dying finely) were, for
the age, mild enough retaliation on the part of a
panic-stricken government. As a matter of course,
the Abbey was restored in its privileges, and the
town subjected to it until the Dissolution.
In this way the Abbey was officially confirmed in
its retention of an economic system which had be-
44 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
come both unjust and unprofitable. Yet economic
change was inevitable, and received a grudging re-
cognition. In 1424 the Abbot secured a papal
g^^ bulF allowing the Abbey complete freedom
to let out its lands in farms to rent-paying
tenants — the system long since in vogue on lay
estates. Later in the century manumissions of
bondmen become more and more frequent. At first
manumission is regarded as a privilege by the serfs,
and the price paid for it is commonly entered in
the margin of the document; but gradually examples
grow more common; no more money entries occur,
and it seems that the Abbot was only too happy
* to be rid of the presence of persons who had claims
upon him as a landowner without any power on
his part to exact a return to himself of commen-
surate advantage.'^ Thus the old agricultural
system slowly broke up, despite the monks who to
the last retarded the transition to the new order.
Towards the town the Abbey remained to the last
unbending, though not on account of any diminu-
tion in the resentment with which it was regarded
by the inhabitants. In 1424 a large crowd appeared
at the gate of the Abbey, armed with swords, to
demand concessions similar to those of the extorted
charter of 1381; but they were still cowed by the
recollection of their late rising, and the affair came
to nothing.^ The last mention of open resistance
^ Amundesham I, 163. ^ Whethamstede II. Intro., p. xxxv.
' A few years earlier Abbot Heyworth had suppressed a similar
rising at Barnet (Whethamstede I, 451-2).
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 45
occurs in 1455 when John Chertsey erected a private
mill, and so withdrew com from that of the Abbot.
To such an act of daring he seems to have been
inspired by his wife, a woman of spirit. Chertsey,
however, was a timid creature; his heart failed him,
and he was induced to make humble apology to the
Abbot and to destroy the mill.
A There can be little or no doubt that in the six-
teenth century monastic lands were far behind lay /s»
estates in economic development. According to M.
Savine, the agricultural revolution had scarcely
affected the lands of the monks at the time of the
Dissolution.* ' Arable land occupies ... a very
considerable part of the area that the monks kept in
their own hands; it was very little, if at all, less
than the area of the several pastures. As agricul-
turists the monks carried on a large, or at any rate,
a fair-sized business. Now if the conversion of
arable land into pasture land had become general
under the first two Tudors, then in these thriving
monastery farms it ought to be in much greater
evidence than in the small homesteads of the
peasants, who tilled the land for their own subsis-
tence, and were fettered on all sides by communal
regulations.' But that the revolution was in full
swing on lay estates we know from More's Utopia,
which was written as early as 15 16.* Even at this
date agricultiu*e was being widely abandoned by lay
farmers who were converting what was formerly
* Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, Vol. 1, p. 177.
' See Utopia (Clarendon Press Edition), pp. 13-ao.
46 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
arable into pasture land, the growing woollen
industry being found more profitable.^
To the last St. Albans strove to check economic
development. At what was perhaps the great crisis
in its history— the revolt of 1 381— it had definitely
refused to adapt itself to altered condi-
tions. By that refusal it ensured its
economic decay^ and finally its ruin. For while it
was highly desirable that religion should flourish
* within the monastery, it was absolutely essential that
such a huge establishment should rest on a sound
economic basis if it was to continue. In the sixteenth
century, or even earlier, this condition was no longer
fulfilled. It is, however, scarcely a matter for which
blame attaches to the House. The mediaeval ideal,
which in one aspect was the monastic ideal^ was
stability, not progress. St. Albans was identical in
its attitude with the other great monasteries; it was
neither more nor less conservative. Its inability,
rather than its refusal,., to change or admit change
was its condemnation. V Such a splendid immobility
has something of grandeur about it. At the same
time the picture of a town deprived of its * natural
right of self-government,' and hindered accordingly
in its prosperity, and of the mass of the Abbey's
country tenants living unprosperously under an
antiquated agricultural system, constitutes a crush-
ing argument for the necessity of its dissolution.
Mt is unfortunate that the surveys of the Commissioners in
1535 for Hertford have perished. At the same time the condition
of monastic estates was wonderfully similar, and St. Albans was
piobably no exception.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 47
(B). The Decay oj the Monastic Spirit in the
16ih century.
The task of interpreting the Abbey's history
during the fifteenth century is difficult in the
extreme. The confusion, the aimlessness which
St Albans characterised political history are re-
in the fleeted in the records of St. Albans.
15th Century. ^itj^Q^gh the material is at least as
plentiful as before, the impression conveyed by the
facts is blurred and uncertain. With the death of
De la Mare the lines of development become
obscured. The fourteenth century had witnessed a
steady upward movement culminating in the Abbacy
of De la Mare. There is a temptation to see in the
fifteenth century a consistent, growing degeneracy :
the more as it is beyond question that by the year
1490 the Convent had sunk into deeper degredation
than ever before. In one sense such a theory is
true. The tide of economic decline and growing
material decrepitude, stemmed by De la Mare's
careful administration, proceeded unchecked after
his death. Within the convent the decay of the
monastic spirit was everywhere apparent. Living
became inevitably more luxurious, and the religious
life grew cold and formal.* Yet the reputation of
^ On the other hand classical learning became more esteemed.
It is impossible not to see in the florid verses of Whethamstede and
in his prose (loaded with classical allusion and metaphor) an early
appearance of the Renaissance spirit in England. Verse and
prose are alike worthless, but show a striving after something
better than mediaeval monastic writing. The tendency becomes
48 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
St. Albans was as great in 1460 as in the days
of Abbot Thomas. Up to 1464 (the year in which
Whethamstede died) no flagrant abuses appear to
have invaded the cloister, nor was there any con-
siderable slackening of the discipline. The problem,
of which we can offer no adequate solution, is to
account for the extraordinary rapid decay between
1464 and 1489, by which time the Abbey had become
publicly scandalous. The history of these twenty-
five years is quite obscure.
The first half of the century was singularly barren
of incident. The best known Abbot of the time was
John Whethamstede (circa 1420 — 1440), a famous
Wh th scholar and churchman. Significantly
stede's enough he was one of those chosen to
acy. j-gpj-gggjj^ ^i^Q English nation at the
Councils of Pavia and Basle. He was popular with
the convent, perhaps on account of his ardent
orthodoxy. The singularly bitter attitude adopted
towards Lollards in de la Mare's time was carefully
maintained, and Whethamstede, by means of synods
and commissions, extirpated heresy within the
Liberty.^ The Abbot was regarded by the monks
more marked in his work after his visit to Italy in 1423, where he
was certainly influenced by the early Humanist movement.
* The town of St. Albans was apparently something of a Lol-
lard centre. Sir John Oldcastle lay in hiding there, and when in
141 4 William Murlee (one of his followers) was hanged and burnt,
the convent firmly believed that he had planned to put them every
one to death (Walsingham : hist. Angl. II, 298-299). See, too,
the account of the proceedings at the Synod held by Whethamstede
in 1429 (Amundesham I, 222-3) • ^^^ commission to put down heresy
{Amundesham II, 23). The Abbot's bitterness extended to any
departure from orthodoxy, and Pecock was an object of his special
dislike.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 49
as having conferred notable benefits upon them; the
chief of these were his acquisition of the Priory of
Pembroke (1439), his generosity to the Abbey's
students at Oxford and certain financial innovations.*
To-day, as one digs him out of the very inferior
chronicle of the time, he seems rather wanting in
purpose, and somewhat vain and foolish; neverthe-
less, he certainly had the confidence of the convent,
who, after his voluntary retirement for some years
insisted upon re-electing him Abbot in 1452. The
reason was probably that he was old, experienced,
and cautious. At the time these qualities were in-
valuable; the Abbey was acquiring a political sig-
nificance, and skilful guidance was necessary to
avoid disaster amid the intrigues of Henry VI's
reign, which were threatening to culminate in Civil
War. The second abbacy of Whethamstede, within
which fell the Wars of the Roses, was therefore an
anxious and, as it proved, disastrous time for the
monks.
It was maintained by Hallam that the sympathies
of Abbot Whethamstede were wholly Lancastrian
during the Wars of the Roses. Riley, after a more
careful study, affirmed that the reverse was the
case,^ and without doubt he was nearer the mark
* E.g. He instituted and endowed * a common chest,' to which
resort was to be made only at times of great financial necessity.
He also created the oflfice of * Master of the Works,' to whom he
assigned regular funds with which the Master was to keep the
Abbey buildings in repair and put up new structures when
required.
^ Riley, for instance, thought it probable that Whethamstede
was the Duke of Gloucester's political adviser, and that his resig-
nation of the abbacy in 1440 was due to the waning of ' Good Duke
so THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
than Hallam. The great affection consistently dis-
played for Humphrey Duke of Gloucester (a lavish
patron of the Abbey), and the attempt in the
chronicle to clear his memory, in themselves in-
dicate with which party the Abbot's sympathies lay.
Further proof is supplied by florid verses, strongly
Yorkist in tone, from the Abbot's own hand; and
finally, there is the fact that the Abbey was pillaged
by the Lancastrian troops in 1461. But the question
is of the slightest importance.^ As a matter of fact,
the Abbey enjoyed the full favour of Henry VI. as
much as of Edward IV; it was only in the actual
fighting that its political proclivities affected its
fortunes.
Henry VI was a frequent visitor at St. Albans,
and bestowed, among many other marks of his
favour, a notable extension of the franchise. The
seignorial jurisdiction of the Abbot over the Hun-
dred of Cashio, which was based on a charter of
Henry II, had gradually been diminished by the
encroachments of neighbouring Lords. In 1440
the King granted a new interpretation of the words
of Henry II's Charter, by which the Abbot's
Humphrey's ' popularity before the rising star of Beaufort.
* When . . . the contending rivals had been alike removed by the
impartial hand of death, we find him emerging from his com-
paratively obscure position as a pensioned monk of the Abbey,
and on the first opportunity attaining the Abbacy once more '
(Amundesham II, liv).
^ 'His (Whethamstede's) counsels,' says Riley, 'seem to have
been sought with equal eagerness by the two great heads of the
antagonistic parties of the politics of the times, the intriguing and
ambitious Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, and his . . .
nephew, the Duke of Gloucester ' (Amundesham I, xv).
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 51
authority was restored to its full limit, if not ren-
dered greater than ever before.^ In order to obtain
such a grant it is obvious that the Abbot must have
been in high favour with Henry VI, who indeed
is always mentioned in these chronicles in terms of
respect.
Nevertheless, when in 1455 the Yorkist party
triumphed at the first battle of St. Albans, only the
fact that the direction of the Abbey's sympathies
was well known can have saved it from being
plimdered.*
The continual fighting in its neighbourhood
reduced the Abbey to dire straits, and the next six
years were among the darkest in its history. Its
troubles culminated in the disaster of 1461,
Battle when, after a Lancastrian victory at the
^\.^^- second battle of St. Albans, the Northern
Albans. '
troops plundered the Abbey and horribly
ravaged the surrounding country. The Queen even
condescended to rob the Abbey of its most precious
jewels and treasures.^ The result was sheer famine;
the convent were dispersed, and the Abbot retired
to his native town. Thus for the only time in its
history the continuity of conventual life at St. Albans
was broken. The final triumph of Edward IV in
the same year ensured such amelioration of the
' CaL Pat. Rolls, 1436-1441, p. 422.
* The King is found nevertheless in 1549 spending Easter at the
Abbey and lavishing gifts upon the Abbot.
* Whethamstede I, 396. The St. Albans chronicles make a
valuable contribution to political history for the years 1450-1461.
For this the coincidence of two decisive battles being fought at
St. Albans is responsible.
52 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
Abbey's fortunes as was possible. The battle had
taken place in February, and by November the
convent had re-assembled, to enter upon the last
stage of its existence with a fresh grant of privi-
leges. A complicated jurisdiction, which far ex-
ceeded the grant of 1440, was bestowed upon the
Abbey. ^
The unsoundness of the Abbey's economic practice
and the consequent increasing financial embarrass-
ment were at the root of all its troubles in the fif-
Hostilit of teenth century. Its poverty weakened
Bishops in its independence, and was at once the
15 en ury. ^^^^g^ q£ ^^^ decline of its hospitality
and the reason for its growing obsequiousness
toward the great. The bishops especially were quick
to realise the weakness of the Abbey. ^ Always
jealous of exempt houses, they exhibited in the
fifteenth century an unusually bitter hostility to-
wards St. Albans. In 1399, Henry Bishop of Lin-
coln had formally notified the Abbot that he claimed
no jurisdiction over the Abbey^; this was nothing
more than an acknowledgment of an old and un-
doubted privilege pertaining to St. Albans as an
exempt monastery. Only twenty years later, at the
Council of Pavia, a new Bishop of Lincoln claimed
full jurisdiction over St. Albans, and called for the
^ Newcome, p. 374. Clutterbuck : History and Antiquities of
the County of Hertford I, Appendix I, pp. S^7-4^> ^^^ ^ copy of
Edward IV 's charter.
^ For the growth of Episcopal hatred, see Amundesham I, p.
73-82, 142-195, and 300-408.
^ Gesta Abhatum III, p. 472.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 53
reform of exempt houses. This was followed by
the revival of the Archbishop of Canterbury's claims
to jurisdiction, but these the Abbot was still strong
enough to resist. A few years later a dispute con-
cerning the Bishop of Norwich's jurisdiction over
the Cell of Binham broadened out into an organised
attack by the English bishops upon the privileges
of St. Albans. This was evidently regarded as a
test case. Exactly how the struggle ended is not
recorded, but probably it left matters in the old
uncertain condition. These attempts mark a fresh
stage in the growing unpopularity of the Abbey,
and it is worthy of notice that the increasing hatred
towards exempt houses on the part of the bishops
might well of itself have led to the fall of the
monastic system in England. As it was, the support
of the bishops made it more easy for Henry VIII
to carry through the Dissolution.
Even during the fourteenth century there had been
a natural and almost inevitable growth of luxury
in the monastic life: in the course of the fifteenth
D f th ^* progressed by leaps and bounds.
Monastic Spirit A host of insignificant facts illustrate
(»39 to H 4)- ^j^g tendency. The food of the novices
was rendered more sumptuous on the plea that the
youths had not such strong constitutions as their
fathers. Papal Bulls were secured remitting fasts,
and the allowance of spices was doubled. As with
the convent, so was it with the Abbots themselves.
William Heyworth (1401 — 1420), who was considered
so excellent a cleric as to be raised to episcopal
54 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
dignity as Bishop of Lichfield, spent large sums of
money on the completion of a splendid Abbot's
mansion at Tittenhanger, contrary, needless to say,
to all Benedictine precedent. A parallel tendency
was a perceptible decline of zeal and interest in the
religious life. In 1428, for instance, owing (as the
Abbot confessed) to its uselessness, the ancient cell
of Beaulieu^ was abandoned, and twenty years later
the Priory of Wymondham, as the result of a trifling
dispute broke away from the mother house, and was
erected into an Abbey. The tendency is further
illustrated by the Constitutions published by Whet-
hamstede after a formal visitation of the convent.^
No gross abuses were discovered, but a certain
laziness and indifference towards religious services
and observance was found to have pervaded the
convent. It was much the same in the cells which
the Abbot visited a little later. It appeared that
the monks were lazy, and slept too long; just cor-
rection for offences had not always been inflicted;
services were apt to be carried out indifferently, and
sometimes to be omitted altogether. It was sloth-
fulness, not positive vice, that had to be fought
against. A subtle illustration of this is uncon-
sciously supplied by the chronicler. The Abbot had
promulgated a set of rigorous constitutions which
went to the root of the trouble more than was usual;
but the convent murmured, refused to accept them,
and finally carried their will against the Abbot; as
for the Constitutions they became a dead letter.
^ Amundesham I, 29, 31. ^ Amundesham I, loi.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 55
When Whethamstede was re-elected in 1452^ he was
informed that three great defects existed in the
Monastery. Scarcely one in the Abbey, it appeared,
could be found competent to teach grammar; there
were hardly any students from St. Albans at Glou-
cester Hall; and it was only with difficulty that
persons could be found prepared to undertake the
burden of preaching.
These facts point to a rapid raising of the standard
of comfort, to growing indifference, and a sad decay
of the monastic spirit. But in view of the dreadful
condition of the convent in 1490 it is important to
observe that they give us no reason to suppose the
existence of immorality in the cloister or even of
any serious relaxation of the discipline.
Abbot Whethamstede's successor was a certain
William Albon (1464 — 1476), 'who,' says the
chronicler, ' followed diligently in the footsteps of
his predecessor. During all the time he was Abbot
he strove after the good of his Church in things
temporal and spiritual.'^ His reign and that of
William Wallingford (1476 — ?i49o) carry us to the
year 1490, when a letter of Cardinal Morton reveals
the monastery in a state of utter degradation. The
decay must be placed entirely between the years
Abbot ^^7^ ^"^ ^"^9^' ^"^ ^^ ^^ impossible to
Walling- account for its rapidity. Perhaps it was
due to the bad influence of William Wal-
lingford, but the whole matter is not a little mys-
terious. In 1451 Wallingford is found holding the
* Whethamstede I, p. 25. ' Whethamstede I, p. 475.
56 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
joint offices of Archdeacon, Cellarer, Bursar, Forester
and Sub-Cellarer of the Abbey, and in some of these
offices he was continued during Whethamstede's
second abbacy (1452— 1464). During this same
period he was to all intents and purposes convicted
of having laid hands upon the moneys of the
previous Abbot. The matter is dealt with at length
in the chronicle, and in most violent terms Walling-
ford is accused again and again of habitual perjury.*
Yet on the death of Whethamstede he was elected
prior, and in 1476 Abbot. ^ Finally, in an account
of The Lives and Benefactions of the Later Abbots^
he is spoken of in terms of the most extravagant
praise. On the whole the general impression of this
difficult character derived from the Chronicle is that
of a bad man but a vigorous Abbot, who, however
evil his influence upon the convent, nevertheless
rendered it important services. The monks, perhaps,
forgot his vices in their admiration of what was to
them the first of virtues — his strenuous efforts to
preserve the independence of the house. For it
was during his rule that the most determined,
and, as it proved, successful attacks were made upon
the Abbey's highly-prized exemption from archi-
episcopal visitation.
^ Whethamstede I, XV.
^ It is a curious circumstance that the folio containing the ac-
count of his election has been torn out of the register.
^ MS. Cotton: Nero D.VII (British Museum), folios 25A-48A.
Whethamstede I, 451. A different MS. from that of his Register
{viz. MS. Arundel III, College of Arms), which contains the charges
against him.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 57
In the register of Wallingford's abbacy there is
only one indication of the bad turn conventual life
was taking. This is the record of an enormous
traffic in patronage, a new and bad
Ktronige. feature at St. Albans, confined for the
most part to Wallingford's abbacy.*
Economically bankrupt, the Monastery was reduced
at last to bartering the livings in its gift, and even
to trafficking in the monastic offices.^ In the register
of William Wallingford there is a long list of entries
noting the gift by the Abbot to all sorts of im-
portant persons of the right to present to the next
vacancy in many of the Abbey's livings. These
transactions, whether accompanied by a money con-
sideration or simply to gain the support and protec-
tion of persons of high rank, indicate a willingness
on the part of the Abbot to trifle with some of his
most sacred responsibilities. More sinister still are
the frequent changes of the vicars in the various
livings. At Elstree, for example, there were as
many as nine rectors in sixteen years; at Shephale
five occur in six years.*
The case of St. Albans may have been exceptional.
In the general decay of English monasticism the
Abbey incurred an unenviable notoriety, which
indeed still clings to it. But that the English monas-
* There are a few instances, however, during Albon's rule.
^ E.g. Office of Seneschal of the Liberty bestowed upon several
prominent political figures between 1474 and 1482 (see Whetham-
stede II, xxx).
' Whethamstede II, xxxii. Riley has examined such cases in
detail. It appears that even his right of presentation of a Prior
to the Cell of Tynemouth was alienated by Wallingford.
58 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
teries as a body were in a depraved condition was
fully realised by the heads of Church and State. In
1490 Archbishop Morton applied for
Commision. ^^^ received from Innocent VIII the
special powers necessary for a visita-
tion of Cluniac, Cistercian and Premonstratension
Houses with foreign heads. ^ Armed with the Papal
commission Morton wrote letters to the heads of
the various monasteries, in which he imperatively
called upon them to reform.
In a letter which he addressed to the Abbot,
Morton wrote^ : ' It has come to our ears, being at
once publicly notorious and brought before us on
the testimony of many witnesses worthy of credit,
that you the Abbot aforementioned have been of
long time noted and diffamed, and do yet continue
so noted, of simony, of usury, of dilapidation and
waste of goods, revenues and possessions of the said
monastery and of certain other enormous crimes
and excesses hereafter written . . . You and certain
of your fellow monks and brethren . . . have relaxed
the measure and form of religious life; you have
^ E.H.R. xxiv. 319-321 : the Bull was promulgated in March,
1490. Mr. James Gairdner believes the curious omission in the
Bull of any mention of Benedictine Houses due to the fact that
there were so few exempt in England. More probably, I think,
the omission was due to the Pope's unwillingness to reverse a brief
he had issued less than two months previously. In February,
1490, at the solicitation of Abbot Wallingford, Innocent Vltl
had addressed a brief to the Archbishop bidding him defend St.
Albans against all attacks as an exempt House. Evidently Wal-
lingford had an inkling of the impending reform and strove to
anticipate Morton.
^ Wilkins Concilia III, p. 632 ; the translation is from Froude.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 59
laid aside the pleasant yoke of contemplation and
all regular observances, hospitality, alms^ . . . and
the ancient rule of your order is deserted . . . you
have dilapidated the common property; you have
made away v^ith the jewels and the woods to the
value of 8,000 marks or more.' The letter goes
on to specify ' the enormous crimes and excesses '
in a most complete manner; names and details are
given in every case, and the Abbot and Thomas
Sudbury, a monk, are accused of the most disgusting
offences. The nunneries of Prez and Sop well — cells
of the Abbey — are stated to be little better than
brothels. ' The brethren of the Abbey, some of
whom, as it is reported, are given over to all the
evil things of the world, neglect the service of God
altogether. They live with harlots and mistresses
publicly and continuously within the precincts of the
monastery and without.'
The Archbishop adds that he had warned the
Abbot to cure these abuses before securing the
papal commission. The Abbot and the Prioresses
of Prez and Sopwell are strictly enjoined to correct
these enormities within thirty days, and the Priors
of the more distant cells within sixty days. Unless
they comply the Archbishop himself will be com-
pelled to make a personal visitation and to carry
out the necessary reforms.
* In 1484 Waliingford formally allowed Thomas Hethnes, keeper
of the George Inn, to have a chapel for the celebration of the Mass
by the Chaplains of ' such great men and nobles and others as
should be lodging at this hostelry ' ( Whethamstede II. xxxiii ; also
p. 269), a clear indication of the decline of the one-time famous
hospitality.
6o THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
The Abbot, making no attempt to answer the
charges, instantly appealed to the Pope against the
authority of the Archbishop to hold a visitation.*
The Pope consented to prohibit any action on
Morton's part pending the hearing of the appeal by
two papal chaplains. Abbot Wallingford must now
have won his case but for the intervention of
Henry VII. The combined pleadings of King and
Archbishop prevailed with the Pope. On July 30th,
1490, Innocent VIII, without pronouncing on the
question of exemption, granted special faculties to
the Archbishop for this particular visitation not-
withstanding all rights and privileges. And there
can be little doubt but that the visitation was in due
course carried out.^ Whether all these charges
were substantiated we do not know; but it is im-
possible to doubt that the bulk of them was true.
St. Albans was too large, too famous a house, and
too near London, for Morton to have been misled
by idle rumour. The outcome of Morton's letter
is unrecorded; probably the reforms were effected,
though the Abbot, it would appear, was not deposed.
^ The history of these transactions is taken from an article by
Mr. Gairdner (E.H.R. xxiv. 319-321) based upon Abbot Gasquet's
researches in the Papal archives,
^ Mr. Gairdner gives it as his opinion that the visitation was
not carried out (see Lollardy and the Reformation, Vol. i, pp. 269-
272, Vol. Ill, p. xxxi). He bases his view on a passage in the
St. Albans obit book (Whethamstede I, p. 478), recording a victory
of Wallingford over the Archbishop. This passage, it appears
from what follows, was written not later than 1484 (see Whet-
hamstede I, p. 479), the convent solemnly affixing its seal to the
narrative under the date * anno domini millesimo quadringentesimo
octogesimo quarto, die, videlicet, mensis Augusti octava.' Pro-
bably therefore the account refers to an earlier and unsuccessful
attempt of the Archbishop to carry out a visitation (see Appendix).
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 6i
It is in the Abbey's favour that no further trace of
immorality is to be found in the history of the fifty
years of life which lay before it.
It seems strange that the Abbey should have gone
on after this shock without a suspicion of coming
destruction. Such, however, was the case; and even
Henry VII is found to endow the
f4^^i539. monastery in return for certain prayers
for his soul to be rendered * for ever
and ever.' As late as 1530, indeed, there is men-
tion of a grant to the Abbey of an annual fair. Of
these last years a wealth of detail has survived, albeit
in unlikely places. In 151 1 the House had fallen
into the King's debt; in 151 5 Abbot Ramrygge,
Wallingford's successor, refused to pay Peter
Pence,^ and in 1519 the Prior of Rochester was
appointed coadjutor to the old Abbot. ^ Monastic
affairs, it appears, were in complete disorder, and a
large debt (4,000 marks) had been accumulated. In
the same year the Prior of Tynemouth was freed
from the jurisdiction of St. Albans,^ a measure
which illustrates the enfeebled condition of the
Abbey.
The first hint of the final catastrophe occurred
upon the death of Ramrygge in 152 1. By a dis-
pensation of Adrian VI, Wolsey was commended
to the vacant abbacy,* the convent apparently
' Letters and Papers I, No. 71.
' Letters and Papers. 1519, No. 487.
^ Letters and Papers, 15 19, No. 510.
* Letters and Papers, 1531, No. 1843.
62 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
allowing this infringement of its rights without
protest. Perhaps, as Abbot Gasquet has said, the
motive for this action was in part a desire to reward
the cardinal for secular services. If so, it was a
poor compliment to Wolsey to receive an abbey so
loaded with debt as to be unable to pay its con-
tribution to Convocation.^ It is far more likely that
he secured it, knowing that the House was bankrupt,
and that strong measures were required to save it.^
The death of Wolsey necessitated a fresh election.
No interference was attempted by Henry VIII, who
confirmed the convent's choice in the person of
Robert Catton. It was during his abbacy the
Visitation of the monasteries was carried out.
Owing to the disappearance of the Hertfordshire
surveys, St. Albans can furnish no certain evidence
upon the numerous questions arising out of the
e . , T Dissolution.^ Such facts as we have tend
Social In-
fluence of to confirm the conclusions of M. Savine.'*
^^' There is no doubt, for example, that the
social sympathies of the Abbey were pre-eminently
aristocratic. Most of the monks do not themselves
^ Letters and Papers, 1523, No. 3239.
* Gasquet : Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, p. 27 ; the
appropriation of the revenues of Prez and Tenby to his colleges
at Oxford and Ipswich is natural ; the revenues of the suppressed
houses were too small to have been of any real assistance to St.
Albans.
^ Savine : English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution,
p. 24 (Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History). The surveys
of six counties are missing from Valor Ecclesiasticus.
* Ibid, pp. 263-267. Cf. His conclusion that the monks main-
tained a population not more than four times their own number.
Abbot Gasquet had stated it to be at least ten times as great.
Cf., too, Hibbert's The Dissolution of the Monasteries, p. 210.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 6i
appear to have come from the lower strata of society.
The Abbey bestowed its corrodies for the most part
upon persons of the well-to-do classes. Moreover,
a close connection existed between the Abbey and
the neighbouring gentry, whose sons it had long
been wont to board and educate. On members of
the same class many of the lay offices of the monas-
tery were conferred.^ Even the apparently demo-
cratic practice of alms-giving was a perfunctory
duty, a mere compliance with the wishes of donors
who had in times past liberally endowed the Abbey.
At a wealthy House like St. Albans, which relied
so completely on the patronage of the great, it
could scarcely have been otherwise.
In fact, evidence compels us to reduce the
generally accepted estimates of the Abbey's social
and economic importance. Such social services as it
did render were chiefly on the side of hospitality
and education. Of these, hospitality^ — which had
always been at least as aristocratic as otherwise —
had seriously diminished by the sixteenth century.^
Nevertheless, after the Dissolution this common
shelter for rich and poor must have been deeply
regretted.*
The Abbey perhaps did its best work in the sphere
* E.g. Whethamstede II, xxxi.
" Cf. Morton's letter to the Abbot, 1490. Whethamstede II,
xxxiii.
* Cf. Morton's letter to the Abbot, 1485 (Whethamstede II.
xxxiii).
* C/. Robert Aske's remarks in 1536 with regard to the blessings
the abbeys conferred upon the ' poor commons ' (Gasquet's Henry
VIII and the English Monasteries, p. 225).
64 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
of education; from first to last during our period
particular care was expended upon the education of
the monks, within the monastery and at the
tion.^^" University. The Abbey deserves still
greater credit for creating and maintaining
St. Albans Grammar School. The first mention of
the School occurs in iioo, when it was ruled by a
secular head master and received fees from scholars.
In the thirteenth century arose the practice of board-
ing within the monastery and teaching the sons of
neighbouring lords; for the future no fees were to
be received from the sixteen poorest scholars; the
master was given the rare privilege of excom-
municating the disobedient, and allowed, after an
examination, to confer degrees upon the scholars
after the manner of the Universities. All illicit or
adulterine schools were to be rooted out of the
Liberty. Towards the end of the century the Abbey
began to board and educate a number of poor
scholars; this custom, as a charity, fell to the
Almoner, who soon devolved his duties upon a Ser-
jeant, who, like the schoolmaster, was not a monk.
The school was thus in no sense * an avenue to the
monastery ' ; on the contrary, there was an entire
separation of the school from the Abbey. It was,
perhaps, for this reason that the institution flourished
(when the Abbey itself was in decay^ till, by a wide
^ The printing press generally said to have existed within the
Abbey was probably set up in the town by an anonymous master
of the Grammar School about 1480. See an elaborate article in
the Victoria History of English Counties (Hertford), Vol. 11, pp.
47-56.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 65
interpretation of terms, it was dissolved in 1539
as a part of the Abbey. This continuous interest
in secular education for four centuries was perhaps
the best word that could be said for the Abbey at
the Dissolution.*
The Visitation of the monasteries was carried out
by Cromwell, as Vicar-General, in 1535.^ John ap
Rice, the commissioner at St. Albans, wrote to his
master : ' At St. Albans we found little although
there was much to be found. '^ The commissioner
spoke the simple truth if it was disorder and faction
to which he referred. In the same year the prior
and about half of the monks petitioned Sir Francis
Brian* to save them from their own Abbot, who
had contracted large debts, had sold the woods
belonging to the convent, and had compelled the
convent to affix their seal to transactions of which
they disapproved, threatening to expel anyone who
should inform against him. Within a year there
was civil war within the Abbey, and the same sec-
tion of the convent wrote a second desperate appeal
* The school was refounded 1549; probably it never ceased
actually to exist.
' Already in 1528 Wolsey had suppressed a number of the
smaller monasteries, among them the nunnery of St. Mary de
Prez (on the ground that the inmates did not preserve good dis-
cipline) and the cell of Pembroke.
' Adding ' It were well to suppress the nunnery of Sopwell as you
may see by the comperts ' {Letters and Papers. 1535, No. 661).
The state of affairs would thus really seem to have been worse
in the smaller houses than at St. Albans ; but of Binham, on the
other hand, there is direct evidence that, except that its numbers
had grown smaller, it was in good condition (Letters and Papers.
«S34. No. 574).
* Letters and Papers, 1535, No. 1155.
66 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
to Sir Brian, saying that the Abbot would surely
take vengeance upon them unless Sir Brian secured
the appointment of a coadjutor.^ ' Our monastery
is in much decay and misery/ they confess sadly,
and their words obtain confirmation from another
extraordinary incident of that year, the trial of the
third Prior for making various treasonable remarks,
as for example, that the King intended to leave only
four churches in England. Other monks of the
Abbey had informed against him to ' avoid guilty
participation/ The result was indecisive, but the
whole matter is an indication of the complete
demoralisation of the convent.^
By this time it was becoming known to the world
that St. Albans must fall.^ Robert Catton was
deprived of the Abbacy in the early days of 1538.
The convent was induced to renounce its right to
elect a successor in favour of Thomas Cromwell,
who appointed a certain Richard Boreman (or
Stevynache) to the vacancy. According to Abbot
Gasquet, Boreman was chosen simply to effect a
voluntary surrender of the Abbey, and it certainly
is true that in December, 1537, Cromwell's commis-
sioners had tried in vain to induce Catton to resign
the Abbey into their hands. He had declared him-
self ready, they wrote to Cromwell, ' to beg his
bread all the days of his life rather than surrender,
although by the confession of the Abbot himself
^ Letters and Papers, 1536, No, 642.
2 Letters and Papers, 1536, No. 354.
^ Letters and Papers, 1537, No. 1209.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 67
there is just cause of deprivation, not only for
breaking the King's injunctions, but also for the
manifest dilapidation, making of shifts, negligent
administration, and sundry other causes.'^ It seems
plain, in fact, that Catton's deprivation was in large
part due to his own misdeeds,^ a conclusion which
is supported by the fact that Boreman himself was
soon involved in difficulties with the Government
which appointed him. He was sent for a time to
gaol, which is difficult of explanation on the assump-
tion that he was a Government tool appointed only
to effect a quiet surrender. Eventually the Act of
Surrender was signed on December 5th, 1539. Some
forty signatures were appended, indicating a de-
crease of one-third in the normal numbers of the
convent.^ The net monastic income was estimated
at £2,102, the fourth highest in the Kingdom.* It
only remained to divide the spoils, which was done
with astonishing quickness. By the year 1544 every
acre of the St. Albans estates was disposed of. The
Abbey buildings were acquired by the townsmen
(and so saved from destruction) at a cost of £400.
The history of St. Albans is sufficient proof that
' Monasticon II, p. 207.
* From one of his letters to Cromwell it would appear that as
early as January, 1536, Catton felt his position insecure owing to
the complaints of his own monks. * Trusts greatly to Cromwell
his position here being so intrikyd with extreme penury . . . and
most of all encumbered with an uncourteous flock of brethren *
{Letters and Papers, 1536, No. 152).
* The average decline in numbers has been calculated by Savine
as one-fifth ; so the proportion at St. Albans was high.
* The three greater were : Canterbury 0^2,423) ; Westminster
(;^2.409) ; and Glastonbury (;£;'3,3ii) (Savine Appendix, p. 270-288).
68 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
the time is past when we can rest content with
generalisations about monasticism in the later Middle
Ages. During the fourteenth century the trend of
events in the Abbey was entirely contrary to that
in most English Houses. While they decayed, St.
Albans revived. A century later it is probable that
the monasteries as a whole were in a far less de-
graded condition than St. Albans. Perhaps similarly
startling differences will be revealed when the his-
tory of other abbeys has been worked out in detail.
Many loose generalisations on the subject of the
monasteries are due to the assumption that decay
or reform proceeded at an equal pace in different
abbeys. Froude, for example, sought to trace a
growing corruption of monasticism from Norman
times. His view was founded simply on his study
of St. Albans records, and even here his account
was worthless. The decadence, the immorality of
which he spoke was largely confined to the early
years of the fourteenth century, and the Abbacy of
William Wallingford (1476— 1490). To see in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries a consistent,
uniform process of decay is largely to misunderstand
St. Albans' history.
It is true, nevertheless, that the best days of the
Abbey were already past at the beginning of the
fourteenth century. The evolution of modern from
mediaeval society, which was effected during our
period, was fatal to monasticism. The country grew
more and more out of sympathy with the monas-
teries; amid uncongenial surroundings, St. Albans,
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 69
in common with other abbeys, became increasingly
unpopular. By its unintelligent conservatism St.
Albans alienated the sympathies of section after
section of the community, until at the Dissolution it
stood well-nigh in isolation. Recent defence of the
monastic system has failed as completely as Froude's
indictment. In the Dissolution of St. Albans we
may not, like Froude, * see the workings of the
ineffable Being,* but we are no less unable to regret
it, to look upon it as a great social calamity.
APPENDIX
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS. 73
Appendix :
See Note ^, p. 60.
The account of William Wallingford's abbacy
in the Lives and Benefactions^ . . /is inconsistent
with all that is known of him from other sources.
The Abbot is described in a tone of excessive
admiration which cannot be reconciled with the
account of him supplied by Morton's letter. In the
Lives and Benefactions . . ., for instance, he is
stated to have left the Monastery entirely free of
debt. This is not only intrinsically improbable, but
is directly contradicted by Morton's statement.
Again, it is difficult to imagine any adequate reason
why the convent should solemnly fix its seal as a
testimony to the proof of the narrative, especially
when the Abbot was, as it seems, still living. In-
deed, considered apart from other evidence, this last
passage, without explicitly stating it, distinctly
implies that Wallingford did die in 1484. Doubtless
the error of Newcome (followed by the editors of
Dugdale's Monasticon), who states that Wallingford
died in 1484, is to be explained in this way.
It may be well, therefore, to repeat that the folio
of the Register containing the account of Walling-
^ Whethanutede I, p. 475-479.
74 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
ford's election is missing, having been apparently
torn from the MS.; that he had been convicted of
appropriating Abbot Stoke's treasure in 1451; that
in the ' Register of John Whethamstede ' he is con-
tinually mentioned in terms of extreme disgust; and
finally, that the Register of his own abbacy breaks
off abruptly the year before Morton's Commission.
In view of these facts we must regard the story
of his abbacy, as told in the Lives and Benefactions,
with extreme mistrust. It is not improbable that
this account was written by a convent fearful of
offending a tyrannical Abbot; it is by no means
impossible that the Abbot himself caused the narra-
tive to be written as an answer to the charges
contained in Morton's letter.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
75
LIST OF THE ABBOTS OF ST. ALBAN'S
FROM 1 291 TO 1539.
John de Berkhamstede - - 1291 — 1302.
John de Maryns - - - 1302 — 1308.
Hugh de Eversdon . - - 1308 — 1326.
Richard de WalHngford - - 1326 — 1335.
Michael de Mentmore - - 1335 — 1349.
Thomas de la Mare - - - 1349 — 1396.
John Moote _ . _ - 1396 — 1401.
William Heyworth - - - 1401 — 1420.
John Whethamstede - - - 1420 — 1440.
John Stoke _ . _ - 1440 — 1452.
John Whethamstede (2) - - 1452 — 1464.
William Albon - - - - 1464 — 1476.
William Wallingford - - - 1476 — I49i(?).
John Ramrygge - - - - 1492 — 1521.
Thomas Wolsey - - - - 1521 — 1530.
Robert Catton - - - - 1530 — 1538.
Richard Boreman (Stevynache) 1538 — 1539.
THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
Chief Authorities.
A. — Primary [printed].
Gesta Abbatum Monasterii St. Albani, 3 vols. Ed.
H. T. Riley. Rolls Series.
Historia Anglicana: Thomas Walsingham. 2 vols.
Ed. H. T. Riley. Rolls Series.
Johannis de Trokelowe et H. de Blaneforde Chronica
et Annales. Ed. H. T. Riley. Rolls Series.
Chronicon Angliae. Ed. E. M. Thompson. Rolls
Series.
John Amundesham: Annales Monasterii S. Albani.
2 vols. Ed. H. T. Riley. Rolls Series.
Registrum Abbatiae Johannis Whethamstede. 2
vols. Ed. H. T. Riley. Rolls Series.
Calendar of the Patent Rolls (from the beginning of
the period up to 1485).
Calendar of the Close Rolls (from the beginning of
the period up to 1364).
Calendar of Papal Registers: Papal Letters and
Papal Petitions.
Calendar: Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic.
Ed. Brewer and Gairdner. 1509 — 1545.
Wilkins : Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae.
Vol. III.
Monasticon: Dugdale. Vol.11. 1819.
Catalogue: Materials for British History. Ed.
Duffus Hardy. Vol. III. Rolls Series.
THE ABBEY OI^ ST. AllBANS: 77
B. — Secondary.
The History and Antiquities of the County of Hert-
ford. Robert Clutterbuck. 3 vols. London.
1815-27.
History of Hertfordshire. J. E. Cussans. 3 vols.
1870-81.
Historical Antiquities of Hertford. Henry Chauncey.
1700.
The History of the Abbey of St. Albans. Peter
Newcome. 1795.
History of the Monastery of Tynemouth. W. S.
Gibson. 2 vols. 1846-7.
The Victoria History of the English Counties.
Hertford. Vol. H.
Constitutional History. Stubbs. Vol. H. 1906.
Le Soulevement des Travailleurs d'Angleterre en
1381 par Andre Reville. Ed. Petit Dutaillis.
Paris, 1898.
John of Gaunt. Armitage Smith. 1904.
An Essay on English Municipal History. James
Thompson. 1867.
Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History. Ed.
Vinogradoff. I. — The English Monasteries on
the Eve of Oissolution. Savine.
Henry VUI an3 the English Monasteries. Gasquet.
1899.
Short Studies: Third Series. J. A. Froude. 1877.
* Annals of an English Abbey.'
78 THE ABBEY OF ST. ALBANS.
Lollardy and the Reformation. 3 vols. James
Gairdner. 1908 — 191 1.
History of England. Froude. Vol.11. 1877.
The English Historical Review (E.H.R.), Vol. xxiv.
Among these authorities the material is derived
primarily from Gesta Abbatum, Vols 11 and iii,
Annals of John Amundesham, and Register of John
Whethamstede, 1422 — 1488. Where no authority is
given for a statement it is from one of these
volumes. Reference to these for every fact cited
would have unduly encumbered the essay with
notes.
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